The German government said on Tuesday that the trade volume between China and Germany would double by the year 2010.

The Sino-German trade volume is expected to exceed 100 billion euros (132 billion US dollars), according to an official "Business Guide Deutschland China 2005/2006."

Meanwhile, Germany's direct investment in China is also expected to double, reaching a level of 20 billion euros (26 billion US dollars), said Hans-Christian Reichel, an Economics Ministry specialist for China.

By now, Germany is China's most important trading partner in the European Union, while China is Germany's second most important trading partner, behind the United States, Reichel said.

It takes China only 20 years to hold a 7.0 percent share of the world exports market, said Bernd Schaaf, the Asia-Pacific region expert for the German Foreign Trade Office (BFAI).

The German-China business guide drawn up by the BFAI and other professional organizations provides German and Chinese companies with investment guidelines.

Source: Xinhua